Walkers
Overview Multitudes of sluggish, diseased bodies roam the city, looking for something to sate their ravenous appetite. The millions of these frames were former men, women, and even children that have become thralls to The Pathogen. During the early days of the initial outbreak, walkers were the most numerous infected to walk the streets. As The Pathogen began to evolve and overtake the city, Canisbury saw the increasing prevalence of dangerous mutants, with walkers becoming a sort of normality of the streets. Millions of former human beings have been reduced to these poignant frames Biology Walkers are characterized by their weary, miserable nature and will always be significantly less intelligent and weaker than the average human being. Some of the early strains of The Pathogen caused mostly degenerative symptoms on people who were infected, battling the immune system and breaking down the host's body until it can no longer resist the effects of The Pathogen. When an individual infected with such a strain completes the process of turning, they will become a walker. Special Characteristics: The initial strains of The Pathogen were relatively weak and human immune systems were strong enough and capable of resisting the infection for a fair amount of time. However, since it takes such a long time for a human to fully succumb to the infection, this also meant that people infected with the walker strains generally suffered the longest, and arguably the most. Walkers are the only zombie that can be considered both dead AND alive as technically, when a person succumbs to the final stages of a walker-strain infection, they are pronounced clinically dead - but then undergo a post-death resuscitation by The Pathogen just before they are actually beyond bringing back to life. This means they are not strictly reanimated corpses, but are still in some ways "undead". However, the human being that hosted The Pathogen before and during infection is still there after turning, meaning they are actually gravely ill humans that have lost most control of their bodies, as opposed to a soulless body reanimated by The Pathogen. Mental Qualities: When The Pathogen gains control of the brain, it will shut it off momentarily as it begins to rewire it for full control. The amount of control The Pathogen gains is never complete, however, as only a fraction of the brain is re The Pathogen's main focus is to control the brain, and to do that it must bypass the immune system. When it finally breaks down the immune system defending the brain and gains limited control of the organ, it momentarily shuts the brain off and begins the last stages of infection. When the person wakes from the coma, they will have fully-turned and are now a walker Physical Qualities: When the human body fights a walker-strain of The Pathogen, the body as a whole and its immune system expends a great amount of resources, and as a consequence the host body grows weak and infirm. Once the infected person enters the last stages of infection and succumbs to The Pathogen, they will return just as enervated and weak as they were before they turned. From the moment it wakes, the revitalized vector is still significantly frail from fighting the Pathogen for so long. As a result the diseased body will be physically incapable of vigorous activity and will only be able to move slowly and perform the simplest of actions. Coupled with the loss of muscular power and obtainment of symptoms resembling those of osteoporosis (severe weakening of bones), the body of the infected will be extremely fragile and easily damaged. One example of this is that bones and limbs are relatively easy to be broken and be dismembered, compared to regular, healthy humans. Also, the feeble body of a walker will not be able to perform physically demanding tasks due to their lack of strength and so a walker can easily be overpowered by most reasonably fit people. Their weakened legs and absence of energy means they can only move at a walking pace, and their loss of coordination gives them awkward gaits that resemble shuffling or limping. Behavior and Appearance: Stages of Infection Behavior Strategy Trivia Gallery